Nineteenth Century America
Lydia Pinkham: Women’s Health Entrepreneur
I recently spent a week in Maine, visiting my BFF from graduate school. We indulged in history nerdery. We binge-watched Ride or Die on Netflix.[1] We ate great food. And we talked about the ideas that are driving me these days: women artists, women entrepreneurs, and what a young woman from the Midwest would have…
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Chasing Beauty
I just finished reading Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra. Here’s the short version—wow! Here’s the slightly longer version: Beautiful prose. Rich with insights. Wonderful storytelling. Not necessarily in that order I did not go into Chasing Beauty cold. Natalie and I became deadline buddies and fast friends in the…
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Maggie Lena Walker Opens a Bank
Circling back once again to the theme of women entrepreneurs, allow me introduce you to Maggie Lena Walker (1867-1934)[1] , the child of a formerly enslaved, illiterate mother who became the founder and president of an important Black-owned bank. Walker was born in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, two years after the end…
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